Boys who save ladies, and ladies that kick butt.

[secondlina]

 


I went to see "Kick-Ass" yesterday. It's good movie. Similar to Watchmen. It's also a violent, cynical deconstruction and criticism of superheroes. While "Watchmen" deconstructed the classic superhero,  "Kick-Ass" deconstructs the super heroic youth. You know, teenage and kid heroes like the Power Pack, the Young Avengers, the (original) X-men, Spiderman, etc. It's a good movie, but it's pretty gore. Basically, if you think Kill Bill and Watchmen are wastes of film, do not go see this movie. 

In the movie, I was amused by "Hit-Girl", who is a pretty bad-ass 11 year old "hitman", killing people by unloading epically various guns and swirling around a double-edged sword. She's pretty interesting as a character. And a bit saddening too - she's a kid raised to be a killer, glorified into a superhero by her father. It's odd, but interesting. I think she's the reason they decided to make other parts of the movie graphic. The directors probably figured they could get away with a lot of stuff. The horrified parents will focus on the swearing, slicing little girl.

This got me thinking about "Action girls" in general. 

Think of your favorite action girl. Did she ever get captured? They usually do...

-Isa

Comments

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

You know what's funny about the actress that plays Hit-Girl? She's also voices the girl in the kids show My Friends Tiger and Pooh. At least the girl doesn't have to worry about being type cast. XD

My favorite action girl would have to be Hawkgirl from the Justice League animated series. (I just happened to be rewatching episodes from youtube). She did get capture, but I think every character in that show got captured at least once.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

The Justice League animated series is pretty fair gender wise. Hawk Girl is my favorite too. I was sad when she turned into a big traitor for a while.

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember going "Ack" when she did that, but I was glad to see that she redeemed herself in the later seasons.

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

My favorite action girl getting captured? Samus Aran...not to my knowledge, no, since even if something corners her she tends to blast it away anyway.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know samus was a girl until lately. But I never played her games before, so that could be why XD

[fenmere.livejournal.com]

She sounds like what would happen if the girl at the end of Leon, the Professional made the wrong choice.

There are a number of other movies that leave off where her story could begin.

I think that's pretty cool.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Hit-girl is a strange and interesting character. I don't think many movie people did it because a little girl killing people? That's an automatic 18+. Not to mention, the actress needs to be able to pull off gentle psycho.

[gigabahamut666.livejournal.com]

I looooooved "Kick Ass".

I really liked the premise behind it of a world where people are fascinated by superheroes but no one has ever really gone out and tried. And the first 20 minutes show really good examples of why it would never happen. That makes it much like the world we live in today.

Nicholas Cage's character had me laughing so much, I loved how he was a mix of a really lethal killing machine but had the dialogue of Adam West's Batman down perfectly.

I had read that they couldn't get funding for the film from any studios because of the character "Hit-Girl" being so violent and in the end they managed to get the funding themselves.

As for my favourite action girl. Catwoman and Batgirl tops my list, and through the different media of TV series, animated series and comics, both have been captured, and pretty terrible things have happened to both as well (Batgirl paralysed and Catwoman had her heart removed).

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Those poor Batman girls! O_O

Yeah, the whole "little girl violence" issue made it so that nobody would fund them (hence the whole "let's do whatever we want, censors won't notice anything but the kid anyways"). Though, this kinda brings in Nicolas Cage in a pretty cool light : He's a giant comic fan and probably played in the movie for a salary much much much lower then what his current fame could get him. Then again, I heard he was also broke. Still a geek though.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling I'm going to really like that character.

Let's see: Fitty Pryde, Supergirl, any number of female members of the Legion of Super Heroes and Teen Titans .... yep, I think they've all been captured at one time or another.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Girls usually do. At some point, you need a character to rescue and it's always the girls by default. Heck, even on Buffy, as soon as Dawn came in, she was attributed "damsel in distress" status (she keeps getting herself in the trouble, but the point kinda remains).

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

"Dawn's in trouble; it must be Tuesday."

In all three of the romantic comedies I'm trying to sell, the girls by-gosh rescue themselves.

[spankingfemme.livejournal.com]

I am pretty interested in seeing this for sure! (also a big fan of Watchmen and Kill Bill :P) This movie was written by Mark Millar right?

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. I wasn't really aware of the movie until a week before the opening. Whoever wrote it did a good job though.

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

...oh my fuck, Action Girls really DO always get captured.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

...Suki, i'm looking at you!

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

Suki, and Toph! AND Katara! AND Mai and Ty Lee!

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

....wow, avatar girls, c'mon!

At least they get captured by another girl. And armies of guards.

Katara gets captured a bunch of times. Count 'em : voluntary capture to save pre-mustache Haru, tied to a tree by Zuko, cornered in the north pole, thrown in a crystal dungeon in Ba Sing Se, captured with Toph to be given to sparky, sparky boom man...

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

OH KATARA.

Luckily she makes up for it by being BADASS

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

The badass is indeed strong in this one!

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

...technically Aang gets captured pretty much as often. Zuko north pole. Zuko in south pole. Zuko with pirates. Zuko. Zuko. Dai Li. Zaoh. Zuko.

Aang's capture also involve more bondage for some reason.

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

Lmao, Zuko, you whore. You're so gay for Aang.

He likes it rough.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Everybody does in that universe.

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHA BRYKE LIKES IT ROUGH.